Even though no longer in development, the cancelled game Night Springs still had a small selection of pixel art cut scenes and animations. Though the number of them are small, I’ll be posting some of them here, and explaining the relevance, and to give you a taste of what Night Springs would have been… And how some of those ideas went onto Sol.
CUTSCENE IMAGE ONE: Breaker’s Farm
This is actually one of the first scenes of what the game would have been. This is where we meet the main character - Frank Breaker. A retired agent (of a VERY secret organization…) who has dealt with the paranatural activities that happened in the local town, Bright Falls. This is essentially where I would end up putting some of the tutorial pieces into the game.
This scene here is actually only meant for the trailer for dramatic effect.
CUTSCENE IMAGE TWO: Alan in the Well-Lit Room
This here is a glimpse at the most famous character - Alan Wake. No, Night Springs was never actually an original game - if you didn’t already know. But I took it upon myself to remake every scene from the video game comic to fit the style of the game, creating one of my favorite pieces of pixel art (made with Piskel, Plymouth Entertainment’s go-to pixel art maker)
CUTSCENE IMAGE THREE: Taken with an Axe
The comic book style was abundant in the cutscenes, and really bought character into it. Sol will feature similar, still cutscenes with a comic book drawn style - except all of the artwork will be my original pieces and up to me to see it done.
One of the biggest improvements from the time of Night Springs to Sol is the animation. You can actually find these playable animations in the trailer in a hidden level in the editor.
FRANK BREAKER SPRITE/IDLE ANIMATION
A lot more cartoon style than than the current Sol sprites, and also a lot more primitive and unfinished.
All of these factors is what led into the development of Sol so far, and are massive inspirations. Like the comic book Night Springs is based off of, Sol is also going to be a very moody and atmospheric type of game, and will have several different types of FX that would have been included in the combat FX in Night Springs (lot’s of sparks).
With all of this experience from projects, even unfinished or barely started ones, we’ll be able to make something completely original and interesting. Full of lore and interpretation, and hopefully the best storytelling experience we can bring to Flowlab.
